Shahnaz Bashir is a Kashmiri novelist and academic from

Srinagar Srinagar (; ) is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary ...

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory since 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019 * Jammu and Kashmir (prin ...

Education and work

Shahnaz Bashir is a doctoral fellow and teaching associate in Communication at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

(UMass). He teaches "Writing As Communication" and "Public Speaking", and has been awarded several "Letters of Commendation" for "excellent pedagogy" by the Directorate of Graduate Programs at the Department of Communication at UMass. From 2021 to 2024, he has been consecutively a finalist for the Distinguished Teaching Award in the Graduate Teaching Associate category at the university. He was also awarded the Research Enhancement and Leadership (REAL) Fellowship by UMass. Before coming to UMass, he taught narrative journalism and conflict reportage at the

Central University of Kashmir Central University of Kashmir (often abbreviated as CUKmr), formerly Central University of Jammu and Kashmir, is a central university in the Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It was established in March 2009 through an Act of P ...

Kashmir Life ''Kashmir Life'' is a weekly news magazine with an associated news website, published from Srinagar, the summer capital city of Jammu and Kashmir. History ''Kashmir Life'' was founded by late Jawahara Shawl in March 2009. The magazine is now o ...

, in its Jan 2016 year-ender special issue, declared Shahnaz as "one of the eleven impact-makers from the entire population of Jammu & Kashmir". He is the South Asia juror for the True Story Award, the first-ever global journalism prize instituted in Bern, Switzerland.

Critical acclaim

His debut novel ''The Half Mother'' (

Hachette Hachette may refer to: * Hachette (surname) * Hachette Livre, a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing ** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary ** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm See also * Hachette Fil ...

, 2014) won the Muse India Young Writer Award 2015. The book has been translated into several Indian languages and French as ''La Mère Orpheline'', becoming the first-ever novel from Kashmir to be translated into a foreign (European) language. Shahnaz Bashir's second book ''Scattered Souls'' (

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

, 2016) was longlisted for "Tata Lit Live Award 2017" for Best Book - Fiction. It was conferred with The Citizen's "Talent of the Year Award 2017". In April 2018, ''Kashmir Observer'' reported "Scattered Souls is the best-selling fiction book in Kashmir till date... Its sales n the bookstores of Srinagarhave surpassed the other fiction titles by Kashmiri writers writing in English". His works of fiction have been compared with

Saadat Hasan Manto Saadat Hasan Manto (; Punjabi, , , ; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author who was active in British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan. Writing mainly in Urdu, he produc ...

and

Anton Chekov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

. ''The Asian Age'' observed: "There are easy comparisons with Manto in the often-shocking glibness with which Bashir lays bare a character's innermost feelings, or with Chekov in the rootedness of the characters to their circumstances." In 2017,

Pro Helvetia The foundation Pro Helvetia is a public foundation of Switzerland, which supports artists, promotes Swiss culture and art abroad. It is responsible for major international cultural event exhibitions. The foundation promotes cultural dialogue of t ...

, the Swiss Arts Council awarded him a writer's research residency at

Winterthur, Switzerland Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...

Books

* ''The Half Mother'' (Hachette, 2014), * ''Scattered Souls'' (HarperCollins, 2016), * ''The Disease'' forthcoming...

Book chapters

* ''Cinema Palladium, Nachbilder: Eine Foto Text Anthologie'' (Spector Books via Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and Fotomuseum Winterthur 2021), * ''The Gravestone, A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces'' (Aleph Book Company 2016),

Awards

* Emerging Scholar Award 2024, by Common Ground Research Network, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA * Research Enhancement and Leadership (REAL) Fellowship (2021-2024), awarded by the University of Massachusetts Amherst * 2023 Winter Non-Working Fellowship, awarded by the Directorate of Graduate Studies, Department of Communication, UMass Amherst * Pro-Helvetia Swiss Arts Council Writer's Residency Award 2018 * The Citizen's Talent of the Year Award 2016-17 * ''Scattered Souls'' Longlisted for Tata Lit Live Award Best Book Fiction 2017 * Winner of Muse India Young Writer Award 2015 for ''The Half Mother'' * Shamim Ahmad Shamim Memorial-''Kashmir Times'' Award 2007 * University Gold Medal and Award of Merit for top grade rank in graduate media studies, class of 2004-2006

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bashir, Shahnaz Living people Writers from Srinagar Kashmiri writers Year of birth missing (living people)